The exhibition "Trainspotter" explores the singular relationship of each artist with the train, through different media such as painting, photography, silkscreening, drawing or models.
The exhibition "Trainspotter" highlights the passion of artists for trains, whether they are vandalised or not, whether they run underground or in the open air. This object of desire and travel is at the heart of the works of fourteen artists, brought together for the occasion by the Speerstra Gallery Paris. Each has his own cultural history linked to trains, symbols of horizons to be discovered or obscure journeys in the urban underground.
Since the 70's, trains and graffiti have written a common history, much to the grief of transport companies. The trains are no longer simply used to transport passengers, but have also become the artistic medium of a whole generation. It is this mad ambition that Henry Chalfant has captured, catalogued and archived in his photographs, bearing witness to the wild exhibitions of artists eager to break out of the boundaries of their neighborhoods. Graffiti on trains has become a rite of passage, a validation of a technical know-how, but also of social values. Painting on a train car is a performance that allows to achieve different objectives, such as the recognition of other graffiti artists, the transgression of prohibitions in a perilous exercise.
The exhibition "Trainspotter" explores the singular relationship of each artist with the train, through different media such as painting, photography, silkscreening, drawing or models.
© Speerstra Gallery
